Fake and Questionable Items (Service Overprints)

About 1999 numerous SERVICE overprints in Bengali began to appear on the market, in the form of shifts in the overprint, inverts, double, etc.. Most were on the Russian printing definitives, but several were also on the Harrison and Asher printings. They were done on stamps that were not officially overprinted, nor scheduled to be overprinted. Many collectors soon lost interest when it appeared they were being produced illegally by a government employee, in collusion with a local stamp dealer, Mr. Zahid Husain (Helal Bhai), and the number of such items was increasing. The following items must be considered fraudulent and are not considered legitimate post office issues. While it is true that they were overprinted at the same location as other overprints, Mr. Hosain gave the person sheets of stamps to overprint. It is not true that they were “trial” overprints, items to be released but then cancelled, etc. They are outright fakes and nothing more. It is said that one or more of them can be found on Specimen for Approval Folders. While this is most likey true, the folders are also fakes.

The person responsible for these fakes has lost track of all the varieties that were created. It is said it could be as high as 200 different varieties. Many others, not shown here, exist.

83-1d 5p Mailboat - light bluish-green - Mezhdunarodnava Kniga printing

This 5p stamp was never prepared by the Post Office with this Bangla overprint. The stamp was released earlier with the SERVICE overprint in red ink, in English.

Black overprint
a. overprint reading down
b. overprint reading up but misplaced and partially on top and bottom of stamp.

Red overprint
a. overprint reading up
b. overprint reading down, misplaced and partially on top and bottom of stamp
c. overprint on back of stamp – reading up.

79-3d 5p Lalbag Fort - brown - Harrison printing

Red Overprint
a. overprint double
b. overprint inverted.

78- 1d 10p Fenchuganj Fertilizer Factory - blue - Harrison printing

Black overprint
a. reading up
b. overprint on back of stamp, reading down.

A philatelic cover with a block of four of the stamps with a fake overprint doubled.

Red overprint
a. reading down on gutter pair, left overprint is in the gutter and not on the stamp on the left
b. reading down, double.

83-2d 10p Dacca Post Office counter -magenta - Mezhdunarodnava Kniga printing

The 10p value was officially released by the Post Office, on 23 August 1996, with the black overprint in Bangla, and on an unknown date with the red SERVICE overprint in English. The black overprint in Bangla must be considered genuine. This should not be grouped with these listed items that were intentionally created. Please note that all the black overprints that are inverted, partially printed on each side of the stamp, etc, are all created “errors” and were not officially released by the Post Office. They must not be considered genuine errors of the issued stamp. The same applies to the pairs with one stamp missing the overprint.

Black overprint

This block of four makes it possible to have the two pair configurations listed below. Although this stamp with the black overprint was officially released on 23 August 1996 by the Post Office, this block of four and all the overprinted varieties are not genuine. The same configuration is found with the overprint inverted.

a. horizontal pair with one stamp missing the overprint
b. vertical pair with one stamp missing the overprint.

c. overprint double
d. overprint double, bottom overprint shifted left
e. overprint inverted
f. overprint inverted horizontal pair, one stamp missing the overprint
f. overprint inverted vertical pair, one stamp missing the overprint
g. overprint on back of stamp
h. overprint partially on both sides of the stamp
i. overprint inverted and partially on both sides of the stamp.

Black and red overprints
a. double overprint, black overprint shifted down with inverted red overprint above and shifted to the left.

81-1d 15p Pineapple - yellow-orange - Harrison printing

Red overprint
a. reading up.

83-3d 15p IWTA Terminal - blue - Mezhdunarodnava Kniga printing

This 15p stamp was never prepared by the Post Office with this Bangla overprint. The stamp was released earlier with the SERVICE overprint in red ink, in English.

Black overprint
a. normal
b. normal, shifted right
Red overprint
a. normal
b. overprint inverted.

79-1d 20p Gas well - dark carmine - Harrison printing

Red overprint
a. reading up
b. partial on each side.

83-4 20p Railway mail service - gray - Mezhdunarodnava Kniga printing

The 20p value was officially released by the Post Office, on 23 August 1996, with a red overprint and must be considered genuine. This should not be grouped with these listed items that were intentionally created. Please note that all the red overprints that are inverted, partially printed on each side of the stamp, etc, are all created “errors” and were not officially released by the Post Office.They must not be considered genuine errors of the issued stamp.

Red overprint
a. overprint double
b. overprint double, one near top of stamp
c. overprint double, lower overprint partially printed on both sides of stamp
d. overprint on back of stamp
e. overprint inverted
f. overprint inverted and shifted left
g. overprint inverted and smeared.

Red and black overprint
a. red overprinted shifted left, black overprint below it shifted right with black partial printing on both sides of stamp.

76-d 25p Tiger - rose lilac - Ashur printing

Red overprint
a. overprint reading down
b. double overprint, one reading down, one reading up.

79-2d 40p Baitul Mukarram Mosque - rose magenta - Harrison printing

Black overprint
a. normal overprint
Red overprint
a. normal overprint.

76-6d 50p Fish (Hilsa) - rose lilac - Asher Printing

Red overprint
a. double, one inverted.

83-7d 50p Mobile post office - light brown - Mezhdunarodnava Kniga printing

Black overprint
a. normal overprint
b. overprint on back of stamp
c. overprint shifted so partial printing on both sides of stamp.

Red overprint
a. normal overprint
b. inverted.

80-9d 80p Garh excavations - dark brown - Harrison printing

Black overprint
a. overprint reading down
Red overprint
a. overprint reading down.

76 - 90p Handicrafts - Red-brown - Asher printing

Red overprint
a. reading up.

15 June 2002 - National Tree Campaign & Fruit Tree Plantation Fortnight

02-15 Tk.10 Drawing of a child and plants

One value of the set of three.

At the top the stamp on the left is a genuine stamp, but the stamp on the right is a forgery and was purchased at the same time as the stamps used on the cover illustrated below. This illustration was taken of one stamp from a vertical strip of five. The lower image is of the same stamps from the back. Notice the poor quality of the perforations. All of the forgeries of genuinely issued stamps were made to be sold and used as postage, they were not made to sell to collectors.

This cover bears five forged copies of the Tk.10 stamps. In a sense it is a “philatelic” cover as it was known that the stamps were forged. The cover was sent to document the existence of the stamps.

21 July - Coins of the Independent Sultans of Bengal

The top cancellation is the genuine cancellation and the bottom one is a forgery. Notice the position of the English at the bottom, within the enclosed circle. It is crooked, the letters and numbers don’t line up in the same positions with those below it as it does in the genuine cancellation, the printingis is not as clear, but easily noticeable is that there are no stars outside the circle between the Bangla and English writing. These were purchased from Indian dealers who most likely believe they are genuine. Go to page for the year 2011 in this catalog and scroll down to this issue and click on the link to see various cachets with the forged cancellation.